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Na'vi
The Na'vi (English: The People) are a race of sentient extraterrestrial humanoids who inhabit the lush jungle moon of Pandora. Humans are known to refer to them as "Blues," "Savages," "the locals" or "the natives." Parker Selfridge at one point in the movie refers to them as "blue monkeys." Description ]] :The indigenous Na'vi are, on average, three meters (10 feet) tall with smooth cyan-colored skin, large amber eyes, and long, sweeping tails. They are the only known extraterrestrial species discovered to have human-like consciousness and intelligence. They have developed a sophisticated culture based on a profound spiritual connection to other life on their moon, each other, and an encompassing "spirit" they call Eywa. Each Na’vi is born with three fingers and one thumb on each hand and four toes on each foot, unlike the Avatars of the Humans who have four fingers and one thumb on each hand and five toes on each foot because of the fusion of DNA. :The Na'vi seem to have a different evolutionary ancestor to other creatures that share two pairs of eyes and three pairs of arms-legs-or-wings, but they have a Queue which provides the ability to make a bond with the environment. Habitat and Range :Various biomes of Pandora. Population concentrated in rainforest regions. Outlying clans have been detected on each continent and in subarctic, swampland, and mountainous regions.James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide pg 26; by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison :Some Na'vi clans, including the Omaticaya, live in tremendously large ancient trees they call Kelutral, or "Hometree." Physiology * Smooth skin is iridescent, cyan color. Long tails. High cheekbones, feline-like ears and large golden eyes. Bioluminescent markings aid in identification and mood display. Average life span is similar to that of a human. * Despite skin color, Na'vi have red blood. * Waist is narrow and elongated. The shoulders are very wide, creating a V-shaped upper back. The neck is long and body slender. Musculature sharply defined, giving no sense of emaciation despite thin proportions.James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide pg 27; by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison * Skeleton is reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. Average male is 3 meters (9.8 feet) tall, females slightly smaller.James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide pg 26; by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison * Three long fingers plus opposable thumb on hands; four toes on feet. (It should be noted that the Na'vi/human hybrid Avatars have five digits on both hands and feet.) * Highly evolved nervous system includes a "Queue" which resembles a long, rather ostentatious hair braid. This seemingly conventional braid actually sheathes a remarkably intricate system of neural tendrils that can be connected to similar structures of other life-forms. See Queue.James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide pg 28; by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison * They have roughly four times the strength of the average human.James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide pg 27; by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison * Reproduction mechanics similar to humans and other Terran mammals.James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide pg 30; by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison The Na'vi are fundamentally different from all other Pandoran mammals: * They only have four limbs, while every other medium-to-large-bodied animals have a total of six limbs. * They have only a single pair of eyes, while most other beings have two pairs of eyes, one primary set and another, smaller set. * All other animals have two nerve clusters extending backward from the head, while the Na'vi only have a single nerve cluster located in their queue. * Many animals possess twin air intakes on the shoulders that supply air and keep their internal body temperature down, while the Na'vi possess no such structures. * While others possess feathers, crests, barbels, and other adornments, the Na'vi are the only Pandoran lifeforms to possess hair. Then again, the consistently warm-to-high temperature on Pandora makes it likely that no species had to evolve hair or fur since such body structures are only necessary to maintain warmth. So we may conclude that the Na'vi either diverged a long time ago from the common Pandoran evolution tree, or in fact they are outsiders to this world. This latter theory is supported by the fact that the Na'vi and the humans have so much in common, including such rituals as kissing or the covering of the genital areas. However, the queue present in all Na'vi contradicts this theory. Diet :The Na'vi are an Omnivorous species. Their society includes hunters and gatherers with incipient agriculture.James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide pg 26; by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison Clothing :The Na'vi are weavers whose dress is primarily for comfort and practicality. Though clan leaders such as Mo'at and Eytukan wear ceremonial pieces, because both men and women fight, there is a balance between adornment and armament.The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure pg 55; by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison Society :Although their society is essentially Palaeolithic, the Na'vi have developed a complex culture based on a profound spiritual connection among all creatures, and to the deity they call Eywa. They are expert hunters and gatherers as well as artisans who celebrate the interconnectedness of nature through story and song.James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide pg 27; by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison Commentary and Additional Info Appearance and Anatomy On the whole, the Na'vi are quite similar to humans, both in appearance and anatomically. They are, however, much larger and typically stronger than humans. Na'vi are normally about 3 meters in height. This may be in part due to Pandora's lower gravity than Earth, which, after time will cause a person to "get soft" (as Colonel Quaritch put it). Their skeletons are reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber, making their bones extremely rigid and hard to bend-(but they easily crack under focused pressure). Their hands are graceful, with three very long fingers, and one opposable thumb. However, it should be noted that human-grown Na'vi (the Avatars) have four main fingers in addition to the opposable thumb just as in the human hand. The faces have high cheekbones and large yellow eyes, with irises significantly larger than those of humans. When open they dominate the face, like those of a cat or lemur. The ears of the Na'vi are long and pointed and are able to swivel around much like that of a dog or a cat. The mouth is also large, but similar to a human's, with a faint cat-like bifurcation of the upper lip. The nose also faintly resembles that of a cat's, but this is only visible in close-ups. The teeth are white, with pronounced canines, upper and lower. The Na'vi species do obviously eat meat, but they are assumed to be generally omnivorous. The Na'vi have tails which are primarily used to aid balance. As in Earth feline tails, Na'vi tails also are indicators of mood. Thus accounting for the common parental expression: "Watch your tail Child!" A complex pattern of iridescent dots and lines, mostly symmetrical, runs over the body, seemingly following the lines of the nervous or circulatory system. These are bioluminescent chromatophores, and they glow in the dark like fireflies. The Na'vi can communicate with these as well; and, in fact, they are constantly shifting and changing color to indicate mood and emotion, without conscious control. Na'vi have hair only on their heads and the very ends of their tails, and what people often mistake for a large braid is hair that covers an external part of their nervous system. Queue Na'vi have a queue, originating at the back of the head and hanging down almost to the waist. This is in fact not hair, but an external bundle of nerve endings that allows them to tap into the collective, planetary psionic emanations of Eywa, enabling them to "commune" with the planet's flora and fauna. While not adding to intelligence, it enables them to share a deep connection and even communicate telepathically with the tree of souls, and any animals with a similar nerve cluster. The Na'vi call it Tsahaylu, or "the bond". When two Pandoran organisms with nerve clusters similar to this engage in Tsahaylu, they gain the ability to share memories and information, and the Na'vi have a special trait that allows them to use the mind-meld to feel as/what their mount does, and as well enables them to move as one under the control of the Na'vi, be it a Banshee/Ikran or Direhorse/Pal'i. This trait is only negated during mating (see below). Clothing :Little apparel is worn by the Na'vi. Cloth, most likely woven from native flora of the planet is the basic garment worn by all Na'vi. It is possible that very little clothing is worn by the Na'vi because it is simply what is needed for the Na'vi to work and live taking minimally from the environment. Clothes appear to also show the ranking of one in the hierarchy of a clan. For example, the Omaticaya clan leader, Eytukan, wore a garment made of brilliant or precious materials in comparison to a simple clothing piece worn by a other clan members. Accessories are added to a Na'vi's attire as he or she moves up in the clan hierarchy. For example, Jake Sully, as an apprentice clan member, wore only an undecorated loincloth; as he learned more about the Na'vi culture, however, he wore armbands and necklaces to display his ranking. Culture :The Na'vi are humanoid creatures that live in various territorial clans across Pandora. Their culture has a relatively low level of technology and an egalitarian social organization. A premium is placed upon young men and women growing up to become exceptional hunters, fearsome warriors, or dying in the effort. Leadership is mainly situational and based on ability rather than heredity; however, high rank does accrue to exceptional fighters and hunters, especially those who ride the Irkan. Like all creatures on Pandora, the fate of the Na'vi is controlled by the sentient intelligence they worship as "Eywa". They choose to live in harmony and natural equilibrium with their surroundings. If they become too numerous, Eywa will devise a way to limit their numbers before they cause an ecological imbalance, for Eywa maintains the balance of life. Over millenia the Na'vi have developed a healthy respect and reverence for their surrounding environment. In return, the environment has provided them with sufficient food and shelter, creatures to ride for ground and air transportation, and an ambient, comfortable temperature throughout the atmosphere of Pandora. Oddly, there is a curious absence of pesky insects and harmful microorganisms; this will require further research. Perhaps because they are provided for so thoroughly by Eywa, the Na'vi have failed to develop tools and weapons for purposes beyond primitive warfare with the surrounding clans and hunting/survival. But they have a rich handicraft tradition and engage in extensive body decoration signifying both rank, activity, and individual tastes. With the caution that it is perhaps spurious to make cross cultural comaprisons across star systems, culturally, the Na'vi are comparable to now extinct Palaeolithic hunter-gather Earth people in some pre-colonial African tribes, Native Americans, and Australia's Indigenous peoples (with trace similarities to the Norse culture of northern Europe before they developed agriculture.) Lacking in any tradition of science as Earth people know it, they view Eywa as an all-knowing, all-powerful mother goddess, and have developed a complex animistic religion based upon their interactions with Eywa, and centered around the "Tree of Souls," which grows only in rare locations across Pandora. Human Relations :When the Human race begins to search Pandora for valuable minerals, the Na'vi are appalled and angered by the destruction of their jungle home for roads, human bases, and strip mines. They see no need for technology, and hence the damage done by humans in the pursuit of underground minerals seems like nothing more than senseless destruction that violates the basic tenets of their religion. They would look to Eywa for help, but their religion teaches that Eywa cares not for the existence of any one creature, but only for the balance of nature. Mating .]] The Na'vi are monogamous creatures who mate for life. The mechanics of reproduction are similar to that of humans and other Terran mammals. However, their unique physiology provides the Na'vi with a level of intimacy unknown on Earth. Cultural anthropologists believe that when an appropriate mate has been selected (which can take many years), the male and female Na'vi will connect queues (called Tsahaylu) to create an emotional bond that lasts a lifetime. The intertwining of queues is both highly erotic and profoundly spiritual, but does not in itself lead to reproduction. Traditionally, once a Na'vi male has passed the tests on the path to manhood and has been accepted into the clan as an adult, he is not only allowed to make his bow from the wood of the Hometree, but he is also expected to choose his woman. After the woman has been chosen, the new couple are mated before Eywa. Jake Sully chooses Neytiri to become his mate, and she accepts and mates with him under the Tree of Voices following his acceptance into the Omaticaya clan as 'One of the People'. Once Tsahaylu is made between the couple, the ultimate in intimacy, pleasure that is unfathomable to humans, causes the somewhat unwillful sharing of the couple's good memories, and is a sign of Eywa's acceptance. If a couple can be foreseen to not have a pleasant or happy future, Eywa has been known to reverse the feeling produced by making Tsahaylu, a sign to the couple that mating would only, in simple words, ruin their lives together, and therefore prevents the mating, because of it's life-long span. After the resulting embracing and kissing, the couple is sent to sleep by Eywa, and the two dream hintings of their future together. The couple will experience the pleasure of Tsahaylu from the moment of connection, until they awaken and have completed mating, when they disconnect and return to the clan, mated for life.James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide Known Clans The Na'vi have no far-reaching political structures on the scale of nation-states, but are organized into relatively structured clans. Occasionally different clans from far-reaching areas will cooperate in times of great crisis. The only known event that has caused all clans to join together is when they are led by a "Toruk Makto", a Na'vi that has managed to ride and control a Great Leonopteryx, uniting all clans under him. By the events of the Avatar film in 2154, this has only ever happened five times, and the last Toruk Makto lived four generations ago. Pandora is largely a jungle world, and thus many Na'vi tribes are similar to the Omaticaya clan that lives near the RDA mining operations at Hell's Gate. Evidence on other clans is sketchy, however, and it is vaguely implied that clans from other biomes may display some regional variation in culture. *Omaticaya Clan - the jungle-dwelling clan that lives in Hometree, nearest the RDA's mining operations. *Tipani Clan - similar to the Omaticaya, featured in the video game. *Horse Clan of the Plains - live in the plains which are beyond the jungles, within traveling distance of the Omaticaya. While the Omaticaya ride Direhorses when necessary, the Plains Riders have heavily based their way of life around riding them. They seem to favor facial piercing with bone somewhat more than the Omaticaya. *Ikran Clans of the Eastern Sea - live on the coastal cliffs, within traveling distance of the Omaticaya. While the Plain Clans are more reliant on direhorses than the Omaticaya, the Ikran (banshee) Clan is more dependent on banshees, who make it possible to reach otherwise inaccessible cliffs. While the Omaticaya decorate their bodies with stripes of warpaint when going into battle, Ikran Clan appears to wear body-paint much more often, and far more of it. It is possible that this is for status reasons: the female lead warrior of this clan was decorated in large patches of red body-paint in complex shapes. When Jake Sully, as the sixth Toruk Makto, rallied "all the clans" to aid the Omaticaya in driving off the RDA and protecting the Tree of Souls, fourteen clans were said to answer the call (since Jake mentions fifteen clans, counting the Omaticaya in). Thus there are at least that many clans that the Omaticaya are within traveling distance of. Reunion of clans Toruk Makto has the ability to unite the clans in times of great sorrow. Including Jake, only 6 Na'vi have become Toruk Makto in history, but it is unknown how many reunions there have been. See Also *Ikran Makto *Toruk Makto *Blue Flute *Su'shiri t'acto sa *Tsahik *Tsahaylu References Unless otherwise noted, information is taken from the motion picture Avatar. Where details conflict between the film and printed material, the film is deemed accurate. de:Na'vi nl:Na'vi pl:Na'vi Category:Na'vi Category:Species Category:Pandora Category:Creatures Category:Citations needed